There are different features, which are important for reactors, such as flexibility in set-up, flow configuration, mixing properties, temperature control, monitoring, residence times etc.
Some problems with continuous reactors are related to leakage, to enabling of visual inspection, to cleaning of flow paths, to adaptation of process flow path to get desired residence time for a given flow rate, to access to the flow path of the reactor, to configuration of heat transfer flow, to discharge of dissolved gas out of the module, to mixing of fluids, to pressure and pressure release etc.
Referring to FIG. 26, in the prior art, such as International Publication No. WO 2004/045,761, a reactor chamber R defines a space in the shape of an elongated rectangle having side walls 11 and 12 and a back wall 10 and a front wall similar to the front wall 10, but not shown in the Figure. A block (i.e., multiple rows of units) of units 1 is removably inserted in the reactor chamber R. A cavity 9 formed between the side wall 12 and the block of units 1, is provided to allow fluid flow unobstructed from one row of units to another row of units. The reactor chamber R and the block of units 1 are two separate pieces and therefore require assembly to function properly. In addition, since the fluid can flow from adjacent rows of units unobstructed through the chamber 9, the fluid can, in some situations, not mix properly.